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More Joy of Paul Goldschmidt: Troll Law Law...

Denial. Keith Law think it's just a river in Egypt.

By Jim McLennan
Marc Serota

Of course, the above Tweet, sent out by Keith Law during the course of a discussion about Paul Goldschmidt, has some truth. But how about 12 months of performance? For what Law completely fails to address is that Paul Goldschmidt has been performing at the highest level for an awful lot longer than Law thinks. In fact, let's pull up the major-league stats for all hitters, going back from May 19 through last night's game, where Goldschmidt went 4-for-5 with two home-runs and a double. Over that year, among qualifying batters (502 PA), where do you think Goldschmidt ranks in major-league hitters? Top 50? Top 30? Top 15?

Keep going. Here's the list.

Rk Tm G PA AB R H HR RBI BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS
1 Miguel Cabrera Detroit 163 718 633 120 220 44 148 75 98 .348 .416 .632 1.048
2 Joey Votto Cincinnati 116 509 406 66 138 13 49 94 93 .340 .470 .530 .999
3 Ryan Braun* Milwaukee 154 678 599 105 193 39 117 70 133 .322 .397 .591 .988
4 Buster Posey SF 154 633 537 82 179 26 115 79 90 .333 .415 .568 .983
5 Aramis Ramirez Milwaukee 127 529 481 72 156 28 98 35 68 .324 .382 .595 .976
6 Prince Fielder Detroit 164 710 585 82 180 33 120 99 92 .308 .421 .542 .963
7 Paul Goldschmidt Arizona 154 646 557 100 173 30 101 72 137 .311 .388 .562 .950
8 Mike Trout Anaheim 164 761 665 145 210 35 104 81 155 .316 .392 .558 .949
9 Robinson Cano NY Yankees
 165 715 647 106 200 40 106 60 102 .309 .373 .566 .939
10 Aaron Hill Arizona 128 555 508 81 162 23 77 41 60 .319 .372 .553 .925
11 Andrew McCutchen Pittsburgh 163 701 620 114 192 32 103 73 126 .310 .384 .532 .916
12 Joe Mauer Minnesota 146 647 555 90 189 11 82 87 108 .341 .429 .481 .910
13 Adrian Beltre Texas 163 691 637 101 199 38 105 43 86 .312 .356 .551 .907
14 Edwin Encarnacion Toronto 154 658 551 93 150 40 106 90 92 .272 .381 .525 .906
15 Alex Rios Chicago 160 657 621 109 192 34 99 32 99 .309 .342 .557 .900
16 Albert Pujols Anaheim 157 694 614 93 179 34 112 64 79 .292 .359 .539 .898
17 Chris Davis Baltimore 145 594 529 82 146 39 109 52 173 .276 .347 .550 .897
18 Carlos Gonzalez Colorado 141 602 534 96 162 25 79 62 126 .303 .374 .522 .896
19 Chase Headley San Diego 149 652 568 84 168 30 108 72 144 .296 .379 .514 .893
20 Shin-Soo Choo Cle/Cin 164 739 630 105 186 23 72 86 156 .295 .397 .483 .880

Yep. Over the past year, Goldschmidt's offensive production, by OPS, is 7th best in all of major-league baseball, nestling just behind Prince Fielder, with four of the six above him having MVP trophies on their mantelpiece. Sure, Goldzilla has been incandescent of late - his May line is 440 /.492/.980, and no-one expects him to continue at that rate. But Law's claim just cannot be sustained, that Goldschmidt has only a single month of decent production on which he can be judged. You can't even say he's a product of Chase - as we've noted before, Goldschmidt hits 190 OPS points better on the road in his career.

The bottom line is, Paul Goldschmidt has been hitting at the level of an elite player over a full year, not the "one month" Law alleges. The pundit still refuses to acknowledge how completely wrong he was about the player, but at this point, each home-run creates another shell-hole in Law's credibility on the matter - and there are people who are not slow to remind him of it, with the same degree of snark which he dishes out. I look forward to Goldie's Hall of Fame induction speech, starting off with a thank-you to Keith Law. :)

And even if he does admit defeat on this one... Well, we'll always have Didi:

Oh, Keith...

Couple of random thoughts from me on the rest of the list. Would you have had Aramis Ramirez up there with the big boys? And Goldschmidt isn't the only Diamondback in the top ten, with Aaron Hill also fitting in there. Gives you some idea of what an impact player he has been for us - and with all due respect to Cliff Pennington and Josh Wilson, explains why Diamondback fans can't wait to get Hill back.

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